Page 21 of The Naughty List
BETTER NOT CRY, BETTER NOT POUT
“Ican’t believe Mikey actually punched out Jonah X,” I hear one of my dad’s old cronies say for the tenth time tonight while I’m wiping down the bar.
“It was a cheap shot,” I mutter because it was.
Jonah was caught off guard by my brother. I was right there and hadn’t seen it coming either.
Thanks to Addi. She told her husband what I was up to with Jonah and he ended up punching my boss in the face.
Tony’s Tavern, the bar my non-punching brother and my retired dad run together has been packed since I got here at six. From the sounds of it, bad news travels fast.
Shawna Mills, our resident bar fly, leans toward me. “Say, Hollis, what were you doing in a dressing room with your boss anyway?”
“He was helping her getundressed is what I heard,” her friend Lola Bishop says while lighting a cigarette. “Can’t say I blame you, girl. He’s fine as fu—”
“Jonah X,” someone else calls out and I’m ready to scream.
“Enough.” I slam my towel down on the bar and point at Tony. “I’m taking my break.”
“But Jonah—” Tony begins before I cut him off.
“If I hear that name one more time, I’m going to quit here and now. I’m tired of this whole place knowing my business. And you fools don’t even tell it right.”
“—is right there,” my brother finishes, tilting his head toward my next customer.
Jonah, in all his black leather motorcycle-jacket-wearing glory plants himself on a stool at the bar. I didn’t even know he knew where this place was.
He doesn’t go out in public much, definitely not around a bunch of drunk dudes that like to talk trash about him walking away from the UFC.
“Jonah?”
He leans in to be heard over the din. “I think, technically, you have to quit now, per your last statement.”
I can’t even form the thoughts necessary to respond to that.
“What are you doing here?”
His nose is still swollen across the bridge, but thankfully there’s no trace of any bruising on his face.
He glances from me to Tony and back again. “I came to talk to your brother. Uh, the cop one. What happened today…I can understand how he felt. I don’t have a sister, but if I did, and I saw what he saw, I would’ve reacted the same way.”
Tony’s eyes are trained on Jonah but he’s much more laid back than Mikey. “He’ll be here when he gets off. Sometime around ten if you want to hang around.” His attention shifts to me. “Get him a beer. On the house. I’ll go tell the guys to cool it.”
Tony’s still my brother, so no doubt he isn’t thrilled about whatever Mikey told him. But he’s a businessman. Jonah making an appearance in his bar will bring in patrons far better than any advertising ever could. The last thing he wants is someone running him off.
“What are you drinking?”
Jonah gives me a weak grin. “I’m not. You know that.”
He’s never said why, but Jonah never drinks. I’ve never seen alcohol anywhere near him.
“Curiouser and curiouser,” I mumble, wiping moisture off the glass I just rinsed for him. “Want a soda?”
“Water is good.”
I chew the inside of my cheek. “Hm, yes it is. But you can’t order it in here.”
His brows draw inward. “And why is that?”
